|
Diary - Nepal
November Stroll, 1997
|
[Previous-Peter Owens' Staff] [Directory] [Next-Conclusion]
November 8 - Flew down to Los Angeles and met 6 more trekkers at LAX. Departed on Royal Thai flight, crossed International Date Line. November 9 - Refueled in Seoul; arrived in Bangkok and stayed overnight at Louis Tavern.
November 10 - Breakfast on 3rd floor of airport; flight to Kathmandu. Arrived 1 PM, and Peter Owens greeted us, and brought us to the Potala Guest House. Promptly we went to Bodhnath, and Pashupatinath, where we consorted with snake charmers. We all had supper with Peter at Nepali Kitchen near the hotel. Good video of Peter and John C. drinking flaming rakshi (brandy).
November 11 - Up early to walk to Monkey Temple. Return to breakfast at Northfield Inn. Tour down to Durbar Square. Lunch at Mike's. Many people went to Bhaktapur, but I went over to Lotus Energy to arrange my December lecture. Dinner at Chinese restaurant.
November 12 - Early start - tea in Peter's room; walk 1/2 mile to the bus, and a long ride to lunch at Mugling. A few good views of the distant Annapurnas from the bus as we came over the pass. The ride from Dumre to BesiSahar was rough and slow - we walked the last 1/2 mile into town, as the bus driver chickened out. Beer with friends. Walked up through town before Supper. Excellent mushrooms at supper. Porters were singing and dancing after supper, by moonlight.
November 13 - Nice view of distant snowy peaks at daybreak. Hiked for miles along the Marsyangde Khola - nice farms and terraces. Lunch at Bhulbhule. Camped on a field between the Ngadi Khola and the Marsyangde Khola. Warm, pleasant weather for sitting around. Sang old Outing Club folk songs such as Logger Lover, and Samuel Hall, from the 1950s.
November 14 - Hiked up to Bahundanda - then down, along great views with terraces and fields. Crossed the river and ascended over tough, steep ascents - partly on trails carved into old slides - then descended to Jagat. Nice camping behind a tea house.
November 15 - Great waterfalls. Steep countryside, cliffs. A lot of ascent today. Nancy told me the info from her barometer-watch, that we ascended 4300 feet and descended 2160 feet for a net gain of 2140. No wonder we were tired! Arrived at Dharapaani.
November 16 - Peter said it was said to be 20 degrees F at Pisang, 12 miles up. Good steep grades - narrow gorge, with great views of the river - too fierce for rafting. Arrived at Tal for lunch. Great waterfalls. Up to camp on the grounds of a small teahouse below Koto.
November 17. Cool this morning. Great hiking. Up to Bagarchap where we visited the (Buddhist) Gompa. Slow hike up to early lunch spot. Waiting in an orchard for the sun to come on us! Nice waterfalls and gorges. Went up to camp in a broad meadow at Tukure Pokhara below Pisang. Set up the Dining Tent for the first time. It really was warm vs. outside. Had popcorn and rum punch at "tea".
November 18 - A few nice views at daybreak - mountain peaks in the clear. It was about 25 degrees F. Nice cool hiking up to Upper Pisang - then we descended to Pisang, and saw how Rakshi is made. Ascended to the Deorali above Hongde. A Twin Otter came in from the east and landed there, and then took off and came back overhead. Bought a couple Mars bars. Then we descended to an early lunch at a small tea-house in the Middle of Nowhere. Continued through cool cloudy weather to Hongde. Camped in a lumber-yard beside a teahouse. There were 296 prayer wheels in rows, along the center of the village - plus one BIG one, at the high end of town. Took hike. Ate supper in the main downstairs room.
November 19 - Awoke to the sounds of the sherpas beating the snow off the tents. By morning there was about 6 inches of powder. We walked around and goofed off until lunch, which we ate at the table OUTSIDE on the second floor of the teahouse. Chili con carne with yak cheese and onions and chapatis. Great. Then a short hike, crossing the Marsyangde Khola for the last time, to Braga. The sherpas cleared off the snow for our tents to be pitched. We went up to the old Gompa, which is alleged to be 900 (or 500) years old, 500 (or 300) feet above the trail. Tricky steep alleys to get up to it! Handsome inside. Four of us took a walk up to Manang, to check out the place, and mail some postcards. Cool, grey, and snowy. We bought some cinnamon rolls. Supper in a room inside a corner room of a big building (barn), followed by singing and dancing. Chang (locally-brewed beer) for the porters, too.
 |
| Daybreak! |
 |
| Annapurna III and Gangapurna |
 |
| Annapurna III and Manang |
 |
Lunch Stop
Click on an image to enlarge |
November 20 - Yesterday's snow and grey weather was followed by beautiful CLEAR skies, and the sun hit the peaks by 6:15. Great views of the whole range to the south of us, especially Annapurna III and Gangapurna. We hiked up to Manang, and went on to Tengi, where we had great views across, and back toward Manang. Continued on until the Yak Train caught up with us. Great pictures. Lunch with Buddi's famous Ramen Soup and Chicken Noodle soup - excellent on a cold day. Above there, we saw Yaks out on the steep slopes above and below us, as we came to Yak Kharka (= Yak Pastures). Stayed in an almost-warm tea-house. Then the yaks all wandered back through town, as it got dark. (The sherpas cleared off the snow, about 5 inches, so our tents were just on frozen ground.) Supper in one of the tea-houses.
November 21 - Morning was very clear - and cold, about + 8 degrees F. We soon came to a frozen stream, tricky to cross. Rest stop at Letdar. Beautiful views back to the Annapurnas. As we approached the bridge over the main stream, it was a steep descent, and the trail was iced over. The sherpas started cutting steps, and we eased along, down to the bridge. Just then the Yak Train (which went up yesterday) came down. I had to get out of the way - had no battery to take video. They were coming down empty. In 80 more yards, we stopped for lunch. Great views. After lunch we continued to ascend, a lot today. Ascended to get over some slides. Then we ascended more to get up to the highest level of Thorong Phedi (Phedi = the foot of the pass). We saw some wild sheep ("blue sheep") across the valley. I took another hike up before supper, just to check the feasibility of hiking above 15,000 feet. Not bad, and the trail was good, too. On the broad scree slope above Phedi, more than 1/2 of the trail was bare. The other half, snowy, was not bad, either. (Note, about 100 people had gone up from Phedi that day. It was never clear, how many crossed from west to east.) Cool supper in the dining tent.
November 22 - An early wake-up at 5 AM led us to breakfast at 5:25, and we started up the trail at 5:45. It was + 8 degrees again.
The actual trail was not bad, not unpleasant nor scary nor steep nor hard work. After we got to the top of the main scree slope, the trail angled right, then left and right, etc. It never got very steep. It occasionally got fairly flat. There was nothing really remarkable about the trail - except it went up from 15,000 ft. to 17,000 ft and higher. It was really a nice trail - which was a good thing, because we did not want to waste any energy. At 16,500 we came to a small stone hut where we could get a cup of tea. I was still well-hydrated from breakfast - not interested. Continued up. Nice hiking. But not much of views, as the ceiling was barely above us. Finally got to the top of the pass about 10:45. Not much view to the west, as the clouds were infringing on our elevation. Nancy and Carol got there a few minutes later - about 11:00. We took a few pictures - Nancy started down, and I went up to the knob 80 feet above the pass, on the south, to take some pictures. Then we fled down the slope to the west.
The first couple miles was pleasant hiking, often bare trail, not bad at all. Then it started getting steep and slippery and bitchy - as we had been warned. About 100 people had gone down this trail yesterday, and 80 more today, and it was packed and slippery. We dug in our heels, and walked along the side of the trail where the snow was not badly packed. It was slow going. Nancy and Peter and I often walked off on small goat trails where the traction was better, perhaps 20 feet down the slope from the trail. After much delay and slow hiking we got to Phedi at the west side of the pass.
Did we want to camp here? No. It was 4:45 so we stomped down another couple miles, to get to Muktinath. This day was allegedly 7.5 miles of trail, according to one book, but it was 6.58 miles as the crow flies, per my GPS machine. I find 7.5 miles pretty hard to believe. Maybe 9 or 10. We camped on the grounds of the temple's barns, NOT at the village of Ranipauwa.
November 23 - Woke up to 5 more inches of snow. We stayed in camp until lunch. Went up to the temple to see the 108 spouts of water coming from the 108 bulls' mouths - handsome, in the snow. Hiked down to Ranipauwa (a rather small town, smaller than I expected) and then down to Jharkot. We took an hour to wander over the old town. I mean, OLD. The main ruins were made with stone and mud. Maybe they were only built 200 years ago, but they looked older than any ruined Scottish castle I have seen. Descended to camp 1/2 mile below the town.
As soon as I came into camp, up on an elevated terrace, I saw a nice white goat. I figured out that this goat was not there as a coincidence, nor as a joke. He was there for a purpose. For supper. For details, see above at "Goat Mc Nuggets". The goat stew was very tasty.
November 24 - Easy descent down to the west - but we did not go to Kagbeni. Rather, we looked DOWN on Kagbeni, and on the Kali Gandaki (on that River and its broad dry bed) which was a great view. Went down to Eklebhatti (= "Single Teahouse"). Then hiked down along the Kali Gandaki River, across its bed, to lunch in Jomosom. We crossed the river, ate lunch near the airport. Excellent "Goat McNuggets", with spring rolls. Then descended several miles through pleasant farm areas (now we were down below 10,000 feet) to Marpha. Visited the Gompa there with great music from horns and chanting. Came to our camp at Om's Home, on the south end of town. The hotel did not have rooms for all of us, but Nancy and I were assigned room #6. (Many other rooms were filled up with casks of brandy, aging.) They had apple, peach, and apricot brandy for about $1.70 per bottle. Not great, but pretty good; we all sampled around.
November 25 - Started down further. Grey day with no views of peaks, which all the books say are great to see. Lunch at Tukuche. After lunch we wandered out across the broad river bed. The bed was a full 1/3 mile wide, with several fast-flowing streams coming down through, which we crossed on small bridges or beams. After a while sprinkles and rain began. We went down to Kalopaani (= black water) and camped below a tea-house. Sat around in the teahouse to avoid the sprinkles. Chocolate cake for desert.
November 26 - The sprinkles and rain continued all night, and into the morning, so we stayed in camp until lunch. After lunch, the rain stopped - so we walked a few miles down the trail to Ghasa. Great marigolds all around the camping area - beautiful. Meanwhile we saw hawks soaring over 1500 feet overhead - far above the 1000-foot cliffs that bordered this valley.
November 27 - Clear weather. Descended over rough trails to the big waterfall at Chhuharo Rhupse, then lunch at Dana. Camp at Tatopaani. Thanksgiving Day. We had chicken and veggies and Potato Chops for supper, with dressing. John C.'s birthday - another cake!
November 28 - Rest day. I hiked 4 miles down toward Beni, nice views of peaks and farming and the raging river.
November 29 - Ascend 6000 stone steps to Chitre. Lunch at Sikha. Some good views of 99% of Dhaulagiri. (I don't think we ever did quite see the summit.)
November 30 - Arrived early in Ghorepani. After lunch several of us hiked up Poon Hill, 1300 steps above our camp. Nice views.
December 1 - We were awakened by thunder and lightning (fortunately, over 2 miles away). Snow and rain. NOT a good day to walk up Poon Hill before breakfast. Descended through the rainforest. Passed the 32 Korean gals, several times. Camp just above Ulleri. As we were waiting for tea, sleet and hail came down, then rain, then clearing. Good views.
December 2 - Descended the 3300 stone steps to the river, then along moderate trails (1000 more steps) to a small teahouse for lunch. Then a short hike to Birethanti, with great views of Machhapuchhare. Break-up party, with tips for staff. More singing and dancing.
December 3 - A bare mile to the bus. Took 2 hours to ride to Pokhara. Shower and lunch. Goof-off afternoon. Supper adjacent to hotel.
December 4 - 6:40 AM start on the long ride to Kathmandu. Ali and I had Dahlbhat; the rest had fruit and cookies. I checked with the Lotus guys in the PM.
December 5 - Nancy and about 8 other people departed at 11 AM for Bangkok. I set up for my 4 PM lecture at the Mountain Hotel. Lecture went well with 80 attendees, coffee and tea and cake and cookies. Supper with Peter, pizza at Fire and Ice.
December 6 - Rented a Yamaha GXR135. Rode north to Ring Road, then to Nagarkot, great views. Checked out the ropeway.
December 7 - Discussed technical problems with engineers at Lotus. Supper at Thamel house with engineers from Lotus.
December 8 - Rode down to Beresshi, then up to Pulchowki. Rocky road! Good views from 9000 ft. hill. Returned to hotel by 1. Picked up new glasses, signed off paperwork at Lotus. Returned motorcycle in perfect condition. Supper at Austrian restaurant.
December 9 - Ride to airport with Debbie. Delay due to bad weather for inbound flight to land. Off to Bangkok. Finished reading 7 Years in Tibet. Crossed International Date line and flew home.
[Previous-Peter Owens' Staff] [Directory] [Next-Conclusion] [Top] |
|
